Ceres: delaying its IPO

Headline news from the world of IPOs: a decision by Ceres to delay their IPO pricing for one week. The company did not offer an explanation, but its fair to assume, after the company cut its price targets from $21-$23 to $a range of $16 to $17, that the offering is encountering unexpected headwinds.

PetroAlgae: Changing its name to Parabel

“In the past year, the company has significantly accelerated its commercialization as a result of key strategic changes,” said Anthony Tiarks, CEO of Parabel. “We have developed a scalable and flexible customer licensee model and our technology is now being implemented at pilot scale around the world. Our priority is to facilitate the commercial-scale production of animal feed and potentially human food ingredients, using non-genetically modified and non-algae micro-crops. We believe it is the right time for these important developments and achievements to be given expression through a new name.”

Mascoma: Adding More Valero, DOE support to the Mix

In december, Mascoma announced that it has signed a cooperative agreement with the DOE to assist in the design, construction and operation of its first commercial-scale hardwood cellulosic ethanol facility. The combination of the $80 million from DOE and the remainder from Valero effectively completes the financing for the first project. Groundbreaking is scheduled for the first half of next year, with opening of the facility scheduled for year-end 2013. It will have an initial name plate capacity of 20 million gallons, expandable to as much as 80 million gallons. Kinross Cellulosic Ethanol LLC, a joint venture formed by Mascoma and Valero, will develop and operate the Kinross facility.

BioAmber: Raising $20 million in a private offering

In a filing to update its S-1 last week, BioAmber disclosed that on November 4, 2011, it issued in a private placement an aggregate of 20,061 shares of common stock at a per share cost of $997.00 for aggregate consideration of $20 million to Naxamber S.A., FCPR Sofinnova Capital VI, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and Clifton Equities Inc.

Genomatica – May forego Tate & Lyle agreement

In its most recent S-1 amendment, Genomatica disclosed that its Tate & Lyle commercial development may be terminated by Tate & Lyle if they have not elected to proceed to the second phase consisting of demonstration-scale manufacturing by March 2012, or if they have not elected to proceed to the third phase consisting of commercial-scale BDO production by September 2013.

Elevance – Ramping up production

In its most recent amendment, filed in December, Elevance dropped a reference to “Our products are currently manufactured at commercial scale using tolling facilities, enabling us to validate our target cost of production for our biorefineries.” Instead the company wrote: “We have produced our chemicals at commercial scale through multiple production campaigns ranging in size from 23 metric tonnes (50,000 pounds) to 450 metric tonnes (one million pounds), including two production campaigns that utilized our proprietary biorefinery process, the first of which was completed in November 2010.

Fulcrum – commenced construction at Sierra, reducing cost per gallon

In its most recent amendment, Fulcrum dropped a reference to “The core element of our technology has been demonstrated at full scale,” and “we expect to produce approximately 10 million gallons of ethanol per year at an unsubsidized cash operating cost of less than $1.30 per gallon, net of the sale of co-products such as renewable energy credits.” Instead, it added, “we expect to produce approximately 10 million gallons of ethanol per year at an estimated production cost of less than $1.25 per gallon, net of revenue from the sale of co-products, such as renewable energy credits and recyclables, of approximately $0.45 per gallon.”

The company also discussed results from its Series C preferred stock financing: “we raised an aggregate of approximately $93.0 million from both existing and new investors, including affiliates of USRG Management Company, LLC and Rustic Canyon Partners, as well as a subsidiary of Waste Management, Inc., or Waste Management, the largest waste management company in the United States. We also entered into a credit agreement with a subsidiary Waste Management to provide a project loan facility of up to $70 million to be available to fund a portion of the construction costs of Sierra.”

Myriant – deeper losses, more production

At Myriant, the company’s latest amendment added a reference to: “We have already produced 24 metric tons of biosuccinic acid in support of internal and customer/vendor sampling and testing programs. We scaled up these quantities from an initial fermentation vessel size of five liters to 50,000 liters from January 2008 to February 2011 at various locations.”

The company also disclosed that its losses expanded to $28M in 2011, but that the loss included $12.6M in interest expense, which reflected conversion of senior convertible notes into equity in January 2011, resulted in a charge to interest expense to fully amortize the remaining value ascribed to the warrants issued as well as an interest charge associated with the beneficial conversion feature of the notes.